


the fluffiest advent calendar there ever was

by pennem



Category: Oasis (Band)
Genre: No Slash, will likely be all fluff lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-14
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:28:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 5,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28062444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pennem/pseuds/pennem
Summary: I'm very behind and may not even finish but I wanna join! :)
Relationships: Liam Gallagher & Noel Gallagher
Comments: 20
Kudos: 11





	1. Christmas Tree

**Author's Note:**

> I'm very behind and may not even finish but I wanna join! :)

**2003**

Noel’s woken up, unsurprisingly, ridiculously early by small limbs clambering over him, tiny hands urgently poking at his face. He smiles and peeks his eyes open.

“Christmas! It’s Christmas!” Anais hollers straight into his face, and he has to laugh even as she goes high enough to make his ears hurt. “Christmas! Presents!”

He yawns, part genuine and part exaggerated. “I dunno, I think I could sleep a little more.”

“No! Presents now!”

“Just a little while?”

“Noooooooo.”

Noel lets her squirm for a few seconds before he abruptly gets up, tucking her under his arm like a sack of potatoes, grinning ear to ear at her happy shriek.

“Presents then!” He declares grandly and they head downstairs. He’d actually stayed up late getting all her presents wrapped and under the frankly ridiculous tree, huge and decked out in as many decorations it could handle without falling over. It’s just the two of them this year, and Noel hasn’t had her for Christmas before, and he’d been determined to make it as good as it could get.

He knows it’s worked when they get downstairs and his daughter’s eyes bug out of her head at the sight, presents spilling out every which way and ornaments twinkling in the morning light.

He enjoys the second of stunned silence before she starts squirming and she jets off with happy laughter as soon as she’s down, little footsteps pattering fast across the cold floor.

They spend the morning working their way through the presents he’s gotten her, along with the scattered ones from the rest of the family. He has to admit he may have gone overboard, always has that niggling feeling he may be spoiling her a little too much, but he can’t really bring himself to care with the red cheeked smile that gets wider and wider with each present that's ripped open from under the tree.


	2. (Christmas) Cookies

**2001**

It’s the last day of recording, close enough to Christmas that Noel's looking forward to wrapping up their last batch of songs and fucking off until sometime in the new year.

So he's in a very good mood as he strolls into the studio, a good half hour later than he was supposed to, but he’d gotten caught up chatting with the one receptionist that always makes him laugh but doesn’t get to see very often.

Gem nods at him in greeting, lounging on the couch with his guitar, and Noel spies Liam already messing around with another guitar behind the glass, face set in concentration. Shrugging off his jacket, he sees a plate of cookies sitting on an amp.

“Ooh, cookies.” He goes straight for them, spying the one with the biggest chocolate chunks that make his tongue tingle with anticipation. “Where’d these come from?”

“Dunno.” Gem says, and if Noel was paying more attention he would have noticed it was said a little too nonchalantly. But he wasn’t and he doesn’t, and takes a giant bite, and it only takes a second before the bitter metallic taste explodes in his mouth and he gags.

“Bloody - fucking christ!” He gurgles with mouth full of cookie, frantically looking for something to spit it out in. He can’t find anything and can’t hold it in, has to spit it out on the floor, coughing hard to get the taste of chocolate and sugar and _bitter_ out of his mouth.

Gem’s still pissing himself laughing on the couch when Noel straightens up, just as Liam comes out from behind the glass, happily looking between the two of them.

“What’s so funny?” He asks, and his eyes brighten even more when he sees the cookie Noel’s holding. “Hey, you tried them! Did you like it?”

“ _You_ made these? What the fuck is in them?!” Noel demands, eyes bugging out of his head, brandishing the thing in the air with disgust.

“It’s just chocolate chip! Whats'a matter with you?”

The confused puppy eyes make Noel seethe and he throws what's left of the cookie at him, and it bounces off his jacket harmlessly. “Are you taking the fucking piss? You didn't fucking eat one? It tastes like a bottle cap!”

“Oy!” Liam protests, looking from the now broken cookie on the floor back to Noel. “What’re you being a cunt for, they can’t be that bad!”

Noel coughs again, mouth still watering from the taste, looks around for some water. “I’m going to fucking kill you. Jesus christ. Gem, stop fucking laughing!”

Gem wheezes, and Liam looks back at him, now looking both amused and offended. “Oy, you said you liked them!”

Gem shakes his head between gasps. “No, they were rank.” He chuckles out, wiping his eyes. “Sorry Noel, I couldn’t resist. I just didn’t think you’d take such a giant bite”

Noel glares incredulously at him, and Liam picks up a cookie and smells it with a frown, takes a small bite and immediately spits it out. “Oh, bastard, that’s bad.”

If Noel throws another cookie at him and then tries to force feed a still laughing Gem another one, can you really blame him?


	3. Wrapping

Liam's never once gotten him a present that didn't come in a paper bag, crumpled up newspaper, or even _cling wrap_ that one time. He doesn't expect much in the way of presents themselves, but would it kill the cunt to at least _try_ and wrap the things properly one time?

So when Liam jumps on him christmas morning, like he's five and not fifteen, yammering on and on about christmas morning and presents even after Noel angrily pushes him off to the floor, and shoves an immaculately wrapped present into his arms, Noel's sure he's hallucinating. 

There's no way. The red and silver paper is folded down evenly, there's no rips and excessive tape and bunched paper. 

Noel's immediately suspicious. 

"What the fuck is this?"

"Your present! What else would it be, ya knob?"

"No way this is from you. Who's did you nick? Paul's?"

"I wrapped that myself, me!" Liam protests, still on the floor, actually looks five years old in his stupid red pajamas. "Ain't you gonna open it?"

"No. I don't trust you."

"It's a present, you cunt! What is there to not trust?"

"I dunno, but it's you. Don't really need a reason."

Noel feels he's let it go on too long the second the he finishes his sentence, and Liam's face falls. 

"God, what, you're not gonna cry now, are you?"

It's the absolute wrong thing to say, but Noel turns into a real cunt when he's uncomfortable, and Liam growls out a furious _dickhead_ before he stalks off. 

Noel sits there with the present for a while, torn between rolling his eyes at how dramatic his little brother can be and guilty at how genuinely hurt he looked.

In the end, he can't resist. He carefully opens it instead of tearing it, gently taking the tape off and unfolding. 

It's a watch. A decent one too, not anything fancy but it's solid and he grudgingly has to admit it's exactly the kind of thing he would buy himself if he had the money. 

He doesn't know where Liam got the money, or more realistically where he nicked it from, but he wordlessly wears it before he heads downstairs, and Liam immediately gets over his tantrum with a smug smile when he sees it. 

Neither of them ever say anything about it, but Noel knows Liam too well to not be able to pick up on how silently pleased he looks whenever he sees Noel wearing it.


	4. Mistletoe

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We stan wholesome affection and Liam and Andy being best of friends in this house

Andy's standing by the punch bowl, regretting ever letting Liam and Gem twist his arm and drag him to this stupid party. It's objectively a good one, full of interesting people and good booze, but it's close enough to Christmas that the music is sprinkled with Christmas songs that make his skin itch and the obligatory tacky decor. There's a reason he usually becomes an anti social recluse whenever the holidays get close. 

But they'd been insistent, and he'd gone along with it, but they'd both fucked off as soon as they got there and he hasn't seen them since. What a couple of jerks, he thinks bitterly as he puts down his empty glass.

He starts off to find the bathroom before he's stopped mid step by an arm slinging clumsily around his shoulder and a warm body pressing against his. He almost jerks but instantly recognizes it's Liam, smells the booze, his gaze going up the denim jacket to the face that's leering at him suggestively. 

"Lookit that, the lovebirds found the mistletoe!"

Kill me now. 

He instantly tries to get away as warm hands clap around his cheeks, edges his face away as laughing lips pucker in his direction.

"No, Liam, you reek-"

"Oh come on, love, pucker up-"

They half wrestle for a few seconds, Liam's hands turning into an arm around his shoulder and neck, and Andy sinks downwards and twists away. 

"You drunk fucker-"

His annoyed hiss breaks off in a yelp as he overbalances and falls onto his face. God, he's drunker than he thought. Liam lands (jumps?) on him the next second, still laughing obnoxiously. He can hear cheering and giggling around them, sees shoes turned to their direction amid the sea of legs as he tries to get out from under Liam. 

Even he's reluctantly chuckling a little bit by the time he manages to turn over, their back and forth making the crowd crack up. Liam smiles down at him, bright faced and delighted, straddling him unashamedly. He could fight, but he finds himself just accepting this is his life now, something that always seems to happen around Liam.

"Ain't that better, you little tease?" 

"Lay one on me, you horny tart!" He exclaims grandly, lets his arms fall to the side in defeat and Liam grins even wider, lets out a little laugh. 

Andy expects a drunken smooch with a fair amount of unnecessary tongue (this is Liam after all), but instead hands go back on his cheeks and he gets an exaggerated smack on the lips, and then he's getting kissed all over the face like he's some sort of small animal who's done something too cute for their owner to handle. There's a cacophony of drunken laughter and cheers around them.

"Pffttt...okay, okay-"

"KISS HIM HARDER!"

"Shut up Gem! No, Liam, enough-"

"Oy, almost poked me eye out-"

"We're not even under the mistletoe anymore-" Andy protests, smushing his palm against Liam's face, although he's giggling just as drunkenly and isn't really fighting very hard. 

"Ssshhh-" Liam laughs, eyes crinkling at the corners and sparkling, holds his arms down, smacks a little kiss on his lips with each word. "Just - let - it - happen-"

There's worse things in this world than a happy Liam, he supposes, scrunches up his face and lets the kisses fall.


	5. Under the Lights

Liam never forgets it.

It's one of those moments, those seemingly normal ones that imprint themselves into your brain, where you're never sure they were really as special as they seem later.

He remembers little flashes of the things that lead up to it; remembers them walking along the sidewalk back to their hotel room late at night, just him and Noel, tired but in good spirits, remembers his knit hat scratching at his forehead, seeing his own black coat sleeve swinging by his side as they walked, Noel's beige jacket and black scarf, the snow bright and white as it collected around them.

There hadn't been any words for a good few minutes until then, both of them lost in their thoughts, thoughts as hazy as his memories of that day until suddenly Noel's in focus, hands jammed in his pocket as he very gradually slows down to a near stop, looking up somewhere.

It's like something out of a picture, or one of those movies where some cunt suddenly recognizes how striking the person next to them is. Noel, completely in his own world, like he'd forgotten Liam was even there, staring contentedly up at the city illuminated in front of them. Liam had been close enough next to him that he could see the sudden wonder in his brothers blue eyes, the slightly overgrown hair mussed by the wind, the collar of his jacket pulled up to his chin, cheeks and nose and lips red from the cold, blinding in the car lights whizzing past and white snow flakes falling and streetlights and Christmas lights bouncing off the glass of the buildings around them.

If Liam thinks really hard, he can remember his own lips sore against the cold wind, sees the flake of snow on an eyelash, how every spot of stubble and every strand of hair had looked against pale red skin, and especially how those eyes had seemed to shine brighter than anything else around them, like they'd taken in all the light around them and kept it as their own.

It's only the two of them for the barely half a minute he remembers, the city noise around them lost in a tunnel, people walking by around them barely existing, everything irrelevant with how plain beautiful the sight is.

Something ends the moment but he doesn't remember what, but does remember those eyes blinking and suddenly the twinkling is gone and Noel's back, and all the noise filters back in, and it's just another American city and those eyes are just the same blue he sees everyday. There's a little jerk of his head, a little smirk, and then they silently keep walking, and his memory fades.

Years and years from then, when Liam hasn't spoken to his older brother for more than a decade, when he sees him on TV and struggles to remember how that voice sounded talking to him, and can't remember what it was like to have those eyes meet his, he always remembers the moment it was just the two of them under the Christmas lights and wonders if he'll ever be close enough to see that twinkle again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> is this it? is this...slash? whatever it is, it sure made me sad :)


	6. Ice Skating

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 1985\. Peggy and Noel being cute.

It's an innocent comment from Liam when they're listening to records in their room that sets Noel off.

"Ye know, Mam's never been ice skating? Weird, innit?"

It's completely out of the blue, which is unsurprising for Liam, but oddly sad and something about it doesn't leave his head. She'd taken them once or twice when they were kids but never got on the ice herself, and Noel's seen her watching the fancy one on the telly a bunch of times. The thought of his mam wanting to indulge herself but never getting the chance is all too familiar. He's seen it too many times, seen her be interested in things and something or the other always shutting her down, be it money or time or their piece of shit old fella, and the bitter taste in his mouth doesn't go away.

He casually brings it up one day when he's getting a snack, asks if she knows if the ice skating rink on the other side of town is open yet, lets her think he wants to take some girl out there. When he asks if she's ever been, she shakes her head and stays focused on the pot she's stirring, makes an offhand comment about never being allowed to when she was a young girl and that cinches it right there.

It's a few quid that he saves up for the two of them, and a week later he's finally coaxed her into going with him. Beyond the protesting that she really doesn't need to try it and the nerves, he can tell she wants to, and he bugs her until she finally gives in.

She picks it up fairly quick. They start out pretty much standing in place until he finally gets her to release her death grip on the railing, and they slowly make their way out. He thinks he would be more embarrassed about holding her hands and guiding her out if there were more people around, but it's just a handful of kids and their parents, and once she's finally moving on the ice she gets the biggest smile on her face.

He hovers next to her once she can go on her own, both of them still going slow enough that little kids are whizzing by them but he doesn't even care, because she looks happier than he's seen her in a while, face concentrated and beaming, looking like a whole new person away from her regular existence in Manchester.

She almost falls a couple of times and Noel has to catch her but they laugh and chat away while they skate, away from annoying siblings and yelling and bruising fists and Noel finds himself forgetting about all of it for a blissful hour. He's far from the perfect son, knows he's a piece of work most days, but at least he was able to do this for her, and just enjoys the company and seeing his mam genuinely happy for once.

...until she accidentally elbows him in the nose.

She starts to lose her balance and manages to catch herself but the flailing arms do not miss and he's on the ice with a yelp, eyes watering and blood trickling through his fingers. The next few minutes are chaotic, him swearing up a storm and her alternating between apologizing and snapping at him to stop swearing.

His nose isn't broken, just bloody and swollen, so they're able to head home, Noel nursing his aching face on the bus quietly once he finally convinces her to stop apologizing.

Liam and Paul fall over laughing once they find out what happened, and Noel cusses them out through the frozen peas on his face, but he can't bring himself to do more than grumble halfheartedly once his mam finally laughs along. She apologetically adjusts the peas on his face, but keeps smiling contentedly as his brothers throw out one crack after the next, and Noel smiles back despite himself.


	7. Eggnog

**2001**

It's a giant crash downstairs that has Noel jerking up in bed, immediately checking next to him before he remembers Meg won't be there. He panics slightly for a moment, convinced he's going to have to go downstairs and fight some beefy guy breaking into his house before some very unmistakable warbling makes itself known and he sighs in both relief and annoyance.

Liam's on the kitchen floor when he pads downstairs, and Noel blinks against the amount of lights that have been flipped on, which is seemingly ever single one, shivering slightly in his too thin pajamas.

"Liam.." He sighs, rubbing at his temples, too tired to deal with him after a full day of recording. His brother hiccups from the floor, still dressed in the same clothes, blinks up at him from among the pile of empty glasses around him.

"You said you made eggnog." is all he says, like that explains everything.

Noel knew it was a mistake to mention that earlier. "I said I made eggnog. Nowhere, _not once_ , did i say Liam, you should break into me house at 3am and drink all my eggnog."

There's another hiccup, and a drunken grin. God, he's _wasted_. "I didn't, I left you some."

Sure enough, there's a clean glass sitting on the counter, and a quarter full container of eggnog. It's weirdly touching in a very Liam way. He could have chosen to drink the entire batch, but he chose to only get drunk off three quarters of it.

_What a stellar guy, our kid is._

Noel closes his eyes and rubs his face, runs through the cons of tossing him out the door and letting him find his own way home, or putting him on the couch and letting him pass out, but then he would still have to deal with his drunken arse in the morning-

"C'mon, Noely G, drink with me." Liam says, eyes closed almost serenely but still sounding like he knows exactly what Noel's thinking. "Don't be a cunt."

Fuck it. He may as well be drunk too if he has to deal with this.

A quarter of a container is more than enough to get him plastered these days, and Noel brings the whole thing down to the floor with him, and Liam crows happily as he downs his first glass with a wince.


	8. Ugly Sweaters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometime in the early 2000s.

Liam's staring at him expectantly. 

"What the fuck is this?"

Liam tuts. "It's a sweater, what the fuck else would it be?"

Noel gapes at him and then back at the _thing_ in his hand, very wrong footed all of a sudden. Weren't they just arguing, before Liam had just shoved the knitted monstrosity into his hands?

"I made it."

"You _made_ it?"

"Yeh! Me fingers almost fell of but I knitted that bastard all on me own."

"First off all, that's bullshit. No way you can knit anything, let alone a..sweater. Second of all-" He holds it up almost helplessly. "-why?"

"I'm telling you, I made that! It's basically my child."

"..The more I'm looking at it, the more I believe you. What-why? Wh-it-which way is up?"

"..Up?"

"Yes, _up_ , where the hell does the head go in?"

"There, obviously."

"This is a _sleeve_." A pause. "I think. You know what, it doesn't matter. Why am I holding this right now?"

"Because it's _yours_. I made it for you."

"In what world did you think this would fit me?" The thing is the size of his head. He pauses again. "Why did you knit me a sweater?"

"I made them for everyone. Mam loved hers, so I don't know why you're being such a cunt."

"I'm not-" He has to catch himself. "Okay. I-thanks. I guess."

"Yeh. Seasons greetings and all that."

There's another longer pause, where neither of them are really sure what to say. Do they just pick up arguing where they left off? Noel can't remember what it was about anymore. 

"Are you gonna try it on?"

"...I don't think I know how."

"Just-put it on."

"..I'm being serious, I don't really know where to start."

"Noel! Stop being a dick and put it on."

"There's _no-_ this isn't-"

"Fucking - put it on!"

"Oy, no-there is no way a human being can wear-get _off_ -"

"You're going to wear me sweater, you twat - stop fighting me-"

"Fucker-that's not even a neck hole-gerroff!"

"Yes it is, I knitted the thing- _OW_ , my eye!"

"Fucking serves you right - _no_ -"

"Put it _on_ , _Mam said the blue would bring out your eyes-_ "

Noel ends up stuck in the thing for a good twenty seconds, and tackles a protesting Liam to the ground and sits on him for a good amount of time when he finally pulls himself out and can breathe again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> what is my ratio of dialogue to narrative? chaos.


	9. Christmas Music

When Noel's done strumming out the song, crouched on the floor of the studio with his guitar on his knee, he's not expecting applause or anything. He's used to the smatterings of _nice one_ or _I'll have some of that,_ even the odd _that's a bit shit_ , but never before has he looked up to see three cheekily grinning faces. 

He frowns. "What?"

"That-" Gem starts, and immediately has to stifle a laugh. 

"What-it can't be _that_ bad! I just threw it together but it's not anything to laugh at!" He can hear the edge in his voice but he can't help it, he's never had his music be _laughed at._

Liam cracks up properly then, eyes dancing with unrestrained mirth, and Noel nearly knocks his teeth in.

" _What?_ If someone doesn't tell me what's so fucking funny _right now-"_

_"_ Relax!" Liam crows, elbows on his knees and grin smug as it can be. "Just wrote that, did you?"

"Yes! Jesus Christ, who else would have?"

"And it doesn't sound familiar at all?"

Noel blinks, tune running through his head again. He's had it stuck in his head for a few days but that's normal for any tune he ends up writing. There's no way.

Andy seems to take pity on him and takes the guitar from Noel, although he's chuckling now too. Gem looks like he's two seconds away from wheezing. _Cunts_. 

Andy starts playing his tune, but he plays it faster, changes up the strumming a little bit and Noel immediately feels himself flush as it finally clicks. 

"Oh _no-"_

_"_ Dashing through the snow, snorting all the way-"

"Shut the fuck up Liam. Fuck _me-"_ Andy keeps playing, Liam keeps singing dirtier lyrics and Gem's finally wheezing. 

_"_ I get it, Andy, you can stop now!"

Gem wheezes again as Andy keeps playing. "You were so proud of it too, oh my _god_ -"

"Shut _up_. _Liam_ -"

"-what fun it is to ride and ride and _ride-"_

Noel closes his eyes, buries his face in his hand and lets the singing and loud laughter continue, feels his flush get deeper and vows to find and murder whoever wrote _goddamn_ Jingle Bells to begin with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> not me being incredibly behind and doing two chapters in one night. i also keep writing early 2000's? no regrets.


	10. Christmas Shopping

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 1995.

"Liam! If you don't tell me where we're going _right_ now-"

"You'll see!" He crows, determinedly leading her along the busy street, studiously ignoring the stares of recognition. His mam huffs, but follows along.

They finally get to the store, some fancy department store he knows she's never been in, that he's specifically had closed down for her. She looks at him incredulously once they're let in and left alone. 

"Anything you want, mam, its yours!" He declares, beams at her. Its the first Christmas that he actually has money, _real_ money, and he's been excited for months for the opportunity to really spoil her. 

"Liam." She sighs, looking around uncomfortably. "This is too much. I don't need any of this."

"Yeh you don't _need_ it, but look around, you may _want_ something!”

He leads her determinedly through the store, excitedly babbling about the ideas he has on what she could get and she listens quietly until she finally stops him with a tug of the hand holding hers and makes him stop.

"Liam." She cuts him off, and he suddenly realizes she doesn't just look uncomfortable, she looks _self conscious_. His face falls. "Liam, this is...it's very nice, but I don't need any of it."

He blinks at her. “Mam, I know it’s expensive, right, but I can finally buy it all for you, you don’t have to-“

”Its very nice of you, Liam.” She says, pets his cheek. “You’re such a sweet boy. But all of this-“

She gestures to everything around them a little helplessly, then gives him a look.

”It's not me. None of this matters to me. D'you understand what I mean?"

He thinks he does, as she gently pets the hand she's holding. He may be famous, but she's still just mam, and refuses to get swept up in any of the excess him and Noel take great pleasure in. Even now, she's wearing what she's always worn, and had been happy and content before he'd dragged her into this store with it's glitzy interior and things that cost more than their house in Manchester where she still lives.

He suddenly feels like a complete arse.

"I-okay. Yeh. Sorry." He says, fidgets uncomfortably. "I just wanted to get you something nice."

"Now, I have more than enough." She smiles at him, loving and forgiving. “That was a very nice rug you got me for the house."  
  
"That was months ago!" He almost pouts, sighs, but they both know he gets what she means now. ”Well, what do you want for Christmas then?"

“You take me out to lunch and we can think of something, alright? Something reasonable.”

“Are you implying I'm unreasonable?” He gasps dramatically as he leads her out of the store, and this time she happily follows. “I’m going to start bawling right here if you don’t stop, mam.”

Their laughter and banter rings out as they head down the street for some food.


	11. Christmas Day

Noel can't believe he has the flu Christmas week of all weeks. As much as he hates Christmas, he would take the festivities that make him want to kill himself over being cooped up and sick as a dog.

He's deep in his couch, spent what felt like hours trying to convince himself to get up and get some water. He can feel his head start to get funny like it always does when his blood pressure gets low, can barely get comfortable anyway with how much his whole body aches. 

He finally makes the move, talks himself into it and stumbles up to the kitchen. He has the glass in his hand before he's realized what's happened, like he'd blanked out for a few seconds, but now his limbs tingle and his head swims and ears ring uncomfortably and he swallows, closes his eyes against the nausea. Is someone calling his name? Glass shatters and he blacks out.

* * *

He wakes up with a start and immediately has to close his eyes and go back down as his head spins horribly.

"Don't go passing out on me again."

Noel sighs and squints his eyes open. Liam's sitting on the other end of the couch, wearing what is very obviously one of their mam's hand knitted sweaters.

"I have to be hallucinating."

A finger pokes at the bottom of his bare foot and Noel pulls it back with a half whine half giggle that's mortifying, swallows and tries not to be sick from the sudden movement.

"Some thanks I get for making sure you didn't break your face open on the ground. Dick. Drink your energy drink."

"No."

"Drink it or I'll make you. Mam said you have to."

Noel groans. "What did you go calling her for? Now she's going to call me up and rip me a new one."

"Serves you right, don't it?" A bright purple bottle is shoved into his hands. " _Drink."_

Noel does, part annoyed and part too tired to be bothered to fight. They sit in silence for a bit, Noel sipping his drink that admittedly does make him feel better after a few minutes. Liam looks around, then looks back equal parts amused and offended.

"Jesus Noel, this is right depressing. You couldn't even get a tree in here?"

"I've been sick, haven't I? Couldn't be arsed with all that."

"At least your jammies are festive. Still, no tree! What are we, animals?"

"There is no _we_ here. This is _my_ house." Noel snaps, flushes at the mention of his Christmas pajamas, red and white and with a fair amount of reindeer. He'd _tried_. "Speaking of which, why are you here? You said you were going up to mams."

His brother shrugs, a little too casually. "She's still pissed at me."

He winces. Two divorces in the same year, one of them because of serial infidelity. Even though Liam's in more hot water than he is, their mam isn't exactly proud of the both of them. He'd been almost relieved to get sick enough to sit out the holidays. 

"So you thought you'd come drive me up the wall then?" He sighs, surprised but not really surprised at how soft it sounds. He knows Liam loves the holidays and would have to spend it without their mam and his family this year. 

"Oy, again, you should be thanking me right? Miserable bastard. Who else was gonna be around you?"

"I have me cats. They're top."

Like he's heard him, Hedges pops up over the arm of the couch and regards Liam. There's a few seconds where they both just look at each other. Noel can't help but smile when Hedges seems to like what he sees and bats at Liam's arm until he pets him. 

"Piss poor judge of character, that one."

"Shut up. She loves me."

"He."

There's a pause with some very focused petting. "...Huh?"

Noel rolls his eyes, stifles a yawn. Benson trots up on the floor next to him and Noel scoops her up, lets her curl up in the spot under his chin she likes and strokes the soft fur, her purring making him even sleepier. 

He pokes a toe on Liam's arm. "Oy. You sticking around, then?"

Liam looks up at him, surprised at what is more or less an invitation, but nods, still petting Hedges who's now in his lap. 

"Mm. Can you-" A huge yawn, and he lets his eyes droop closed. "-feed the cats in a bit?"

"Yes, master."

Something soft lands on him, Benson keeps purring and he's out. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The fact that Noel named his cats Benson and Hedges is just ADORABLE. Also I think Noel and Liam both got divorced a year apart but for the sake of this it was before the same holiday season.


End file.
